January roundup: What is quiet quitting, and what’s going on with the global labor market?

Hello, friends and followers!

In this newsletter, I would like to discuss employees' importance in detail.

Laszlo Bock , the former head of Google’s human resources department, wrote the book Rules of work!: Insights from inside Google that will transform how you live and lead in 2015, and it's still relevant. Bock detailed Google’s talent management policy. This policy has made Google one of the best places to work in the world. They follow these five evidence-based management practices:

• Be fair and consistent
• Encourage transparency as a cultural norm
• Allow employees to participate in decision-making
• When hiring, put less emphasis on degrees
• Develop your managers as coaches

A study by SMF found that companies with happy employees outperform their competitors by 20%. And for employees to feel happy at work, they need social and health benefits, work-life balance, career pathing opportunities, agility, flexibility, talent mobility, and more. That’s how critical HR management is to business success! If you haven’t done it, think about how you can help your managers improve your company’s work.

You might say: "Lesson learned: Employees need benefits. But what can we do if there’s a global labor market crisis?"

According to the World Economic Forum, positions in sustainability, cyber security, and sales are among the fastest-growing. As a result, these job categories offer some of the most vital opportunities for job seekers, even during hard times. Moreover, most companies have realized that access to a learning and development program could put them in a better position to weather the economic headwinds of 2023 and beyond. After all, tensions in the global labor market have been high and will continue to be in 2023.

At the same time, while demand for IT professionals continues growing, things are not so smooth with retail trade. Amazon is laying off more than 18,000 employees — the biggest cut in its history. Salesforce has also announced plans to lay off about 10% of its workforce and reduce its real estate holdings. I assure you, downsizing isn’t a Band-Aid here. Very often, strategic workforce planning helps prevent employee and skills shortages.

Besides strategic workforce planning, there is one more important practice, and it’s building employability skills. After all, employment opportunities and employability skills offer the ability to move independently in the labor market to realize one’s potential through stable employment.

Employability is about the skills that will help an employee succeed in a career and help your business grow too.?

I’ve already mentioned the power of employee appreciation. I might say that disregarding employees and lousy management often lead to quiet quitting (I think you already know this term pretty well).

Quiet quitting isn’t new, but it gained a second wind precisely at the end of 2022. And in 2023, it will continue to emerge in the work environment. It’s debatable whether this phenomenon is a condemned laxity or simply an act of self-preservation after employees realized the hustle culture didn’t pay off. While employers and employees naturally take different sides in this argument, there is growing support for the view that business leaders should prevent internal resignations and that bad managers threaten morale, engagement, and productivity.

“Giving employees mobility and a vision of how their careers can progress is key to avoiding quiet quitting” — Thierry Delaporte, CEO of IT multinational Wipro Ltd.?

HBR found that a lack of employee motivation was a reaction to managers’ actions. In response, the HRForecast team conducted an anonymous survey to understand why quiet quitting is happening.

We asked people to answer three questions based on their experience:

• What would be your main reason for not doing your best at work?
• What change is most likely to improve your performance at work?
• How has your life been negatively impacted by your previous job and/or your current job?

The purpose of the survey was to research reasons for quiet quitting and find optimal solutions to overcome factors in the workplace that demotivate employees and reduce their productivity.

See the results here!

One of the solutions was using agile tools and technical solutions for HR managers, as they help with upskilling, internal recruiting, talent mobility, agile career pathing, skills management, succession planning, and more.

Speaking about HR tools: We recently shared our observations about HRForecast tools and the musical genres or songs they remind us of. Check out why we think Market Intelligence (people analytics platform) is rock metal, smartPlan (strategic workforce planning platform) is classical music for conducting your workforce orchestra, and smartPeople (talent marketplace platform) is progressive rock.

By the way, we just started our She-Heroes of HR and people analytics - International Women’s Day (IWD) 2023 initiative! I welcome specialists to share your insights into HR strategy, leadership, digital transformation, and workforce challenges. Feel free to answer one, several, or all questions I shared above. More details here!

Future-proofed is a monthly dose of insights on people analytics, the future of work, and data-driven HR to help smart HR leaders stay ahead of the curve. Follow me on LinkedIn and keep up with the latest insights to jump-start your organization’s future-proofing today.